Looking through different location reference photos called my attention to the new cultural phenomenon of phone addiction. I mean, I knew about it of course, but it's not something you digest the full effect of until you see it made obvious. Twenty years ago, if you were to look through photos, you wouldn't find people sitting around playing with their phones in the background. I'm not sure what they would be doing, if anything. Maybe they'd just have their hands in their pockets instead.

Observations like this are important because artists need to replicate reality often. Patterns, groupings, the way objects fall naturally are all subtle details that make a setting believable. So if you're doing an illustration of a crowd now for example, making it current would require a bunch of people texting on their phones. And more specifically everyone has their own technique too. Index finger tappers, piano fingers, thumb shovers...all different ways you'd see people using their phones.